Fresh death warrants have been issued against all four convicts – Pawan Gupta, Mukesh, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Kumar Singh – in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case on Friday. The convicts would be hanged on February 1 at 6 am at Tihar Jail in New Delhi. The new warrant was signed mere hours after President Ram Nath Kovind rejected a mercy petition filed by Mukesh Singh, one of the convicts.

While a co-accused juvenile (who was short of 18 during the crime), was released from reform home after three years of the crime, another accused Ram Singh hanged himself in prison. The convicts were guilty of gang raping and brutally murdering Nirbhaya on 16 December 2012.

Vinay Sharma, Mukesh Singh, Akshay Kumar Singh and Pawan Gupta were to be hanged at Delhi's Tihar Jail on January 22, the same trial court judge had declared last week, signing a death warrant more than seven years after  medical student 'Nirbhaya' was gang-raped on a moving bus, tortured and killed.

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